Korean Canadians in Canada — An origin story
The following piece is adapted from a research paper I wrote while I was studying at the University of Toronto. It was completed for the course: HIS312 — History of Canadian Immigration. Enjoy!
My grandparents arrived in Canada in the late sixties, making them some of the earliest permanent settlers in Canada of Korean descent.
While researching about Korean immigrants’ settlement in Canada, I realized that there are some commonalities between my personal family history and the history of the general Korean Canadian population:
- My grandparents were loyal members of the first Korean church in Canada; now, Korean churches are so integral to Korean immigrants’ social lives that many Korean immigrants who come to Canada either are already Christians or convert to Christianity.
- My grandparents owned a Mac’s convenience store in the seventies when during the seventies, several (more than 800) Korean Canadian families owned convenience stores.
*Not to mention, Ins Choi, the playwright of “Kim’s Convenience”, noted in 2011 that “the story of Korean immigration in Toronto melds the church and the store […] they’re like the mother and father of the Korean community [in Canada].”
My interest in finding how my family fits in the larger history of Korean Canadians led me to the following question:
How did Korean immigrants adapt to life in Canada between 1962 and 1988?
I chose 1962–1988 as my timeframe because it reflects the following landmarks in Canadian immigration history that influenced Korean emigration:
- 1962 is the year that introduced new immigration regulations that eliminated overt racial discrimination from Canadian immigration policy.
- 1963 is the year that full diplomatic relations between South Korea and Canada became established.
- 1988 is the year that the Canadian Multiculturalism Act came into effect. This act provided a legislative framework that better reflected Canada’s increasingly diverse racial and ethnic composition. *This year also marks the end of the first wave of Korean immigrants that came to Canada according to Korean Canadian immigration historians, Samuel Noh, Ann Kim, and Marianne Noh.
To answer my research question, I will use historian In-Jin Yoon’s definition of accommodation in relation to migration and the Korean diaspora:
Accommodation occurs when immigrants blend the cultures of the home country and host country.
Yoon’s definition and my wider research led me to the following thesis:
Between 1962 and 1988, Korean immigrants adapted to life in Canada by blending Korean and Canadian cultures in religion, at work, and at home.
The blending of Korean and Canadian cultures thus took place in the following places:
- Korean-established Christian churches, where Korean social life thrived in the framework of western religious ideology.
- Local storefront businesses, where first-generation Korean Canadians worked to support their ambitious aspirations for their children’s futures.
- Home kitchens, where western-style groceries were incorporated into Korean recipes.
Korean churches in Canada
Korean immigrants started Korean-language Christian churches in Canada during the sixties. The church thus became an important setting for many Korean immigrants by blending western religious ideology and Korean community.
Korean Christians were inspired to migrate to Canada by Canadian missionaries who traveled to South Korea before 1963. In South Korea, these missionaries built schools, hospitals, and other helpful social services, gaining the trust of Korean society. Koreans found solace in Christianity after their traditional ways of thinking were undermined during the Japanese occupation (1910–1945) and during the Korean War (1950–1953). Religion thus became a commonality between Canadians and Koreans. When diplomatic relations became established between Canada and South Korea in 1963, many of the first Korean immigrants to Canada were Christians.
Through the establishment of Korean churches, Korean immigrants found a community that followed the same faith and had the same ethnic identity. This was an important support system for many of the first Korean families in Canada.
The separation of Korean Christians from other Christians in Canada shows that there was a collective preference to maintain Korean language and community even if it was under a western (mainstream Canadian) framework. As such, Korean immigrants blended Korean community with western religious ideology.
The local storefront business
Korean immigrants also started small businesses to adapt to life in Canada. Some of these businesses included convenience stores, laundromats, tailors, and dry-cleaning stores. These businesses would provide enough for Korean immigrants’ families to create a modest, but stable income for their first years abroad. However, these businesses were not meant to be inherited by the next generation. First-generation Korean immigrants expected that their children would go to university and pursue higher paying jobs rather than taking over the management of their businesses.
David Lee, president of the Korean Businessmen’s Association in 1987, illustrated this common Korean immigrant aspiration in a 1987 article for The Gazette about Korean-immigrant owned convenience stores in Montreal. He noted that Korean immigrants’ businesses in Montreal were typically started to fund their children’s post-secondary education. In the article, Lee noted that the end-goal for “[Korean] parents [is] to make doctors and lawyers, just like Canadian parents.”
Lee’s comment reveals that the establishment of small businesses was often a small part of a larger plan for Koreans who immigrated to Canada in the seventies and eighties; the fruition of their goals depended on the second generation.
This family-based ideology was used by Koreans before they immigrated to Canada and is also important to many East Asian cultures. It is founded in Confucian familial values, which dictate that familial ties are important in all aspects of life — politics, work, family, and ethics.
As such, Korean immigrants’ small businesses helped Koreans adapt to life in Canada by blending the Canadian economy with Korean familial values.
The emergence of Korean Canadian foodways
*Foodways are cultural practices related to the making of food.
Early Korean immigrants also adapted to life in Canada by incorporating mainstream Canadian groceries into their foodways. Limited grocery options indirectly encouraged immigrants to adopt more “Canadian” foodways, since most grocery stores did not accommodate many international cuisines between 1962 and 1988. However, Korean-immigrant cooks often continued making Korean meals with groceries that were available to them in Canada.
My grandmother, Kim Kuk Hwa, immigrated from Seoul to Toronto in the mid-sixties to join her Korean husband who was pursuing various business opportunities in Canada. She recalled that she continued making Korean meals for my mother and uncle despite the lack of traditional Korean ingredients at Canadian grocery stores. For example, she began using white vinegar in all her recipes when she would have exclusively used rice vinegar in Seoul. This shows that limited grocery options in Canada led her to maintain Korean foodways with the Canadian groceries she had access to.
A similar example can be seen in a Montreal Gazette piece about Korean cuisine in 1979. The ingredients for “Chung Soon Oh’s Bulgogi,” in this piece include Canadian groceries including: “2 lbs of Spencer steak and ½ cup of red wine.” Since this recipe was written for a Canadian audience that was unfamiliar with Korean cuisine, it intentionally included western ingredients to accommodate Canadians’ tastes and grocery availability. This example also made Korean recipes accessible in Canada to those without a Korean background.
Through these examples of Canadian ingredients included in Korean recipes, Korean cooks made efforts to preserve their foodways as much as they could while using locally accessible groceries. The end product blended Korean foodways and Canadian groceries, whether it was intentional or not, due to the inaccessibility of Korean groceries in Canada during the seventies and eighties.
In Summary…
The first wave of Korean immigrants between 1962 and 1988 thus adapted to living in Canada by blending elements of Korean and Canadian culture into religion, work, and life at home.
Through their establishment of Korean churches, Korean immigrants blended social life within the Korean community with western religious ideology; through their establishment of small businesses, Korean immigrants blended Korean familial values into the Canadian economy; and through their use of Canadian groceries in Korean cooking, Korean immigrants blended Korean foodways with Canadian groceries.
My grandparents, as well as all the other first Korean immigrants to Canada, are now an important part of Korean Canadian history. Their individual experiences are also crucial to the history of Canadian immigration. We can learn through their stories that they created a new Korean Canadian culture by blending the best of Korea and Canada. This history has shaped Korean Canadian communities into what they are today.
Bibliography
Bai, David, “Korean Canadians”. In the Canadian Encyclopedia. Historica Canada. Article published June 17, 2010; Last Edited October 21, 2019. https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/koreans
Han, J. D, and Peter Ibbott. “Korean Migration to North America: Some Prices That Matter.” Canadian Studies in Population 32, no. 2 (2005): 155–76. https://doi.org/10.25336/P6XS4T.
Heritage, Canadian. “Government of Canada.” Events in Asian Canadian History — Canada.ca. April 30, 2021. Accessed December 18, 2021. https://www.canada.ca/en/canadian-heritage/campaigns/asian-heritage-month/important-events.html.
In-Jin Yoon, Migration and the Korean Diaspora: A Comparative Description of Five Cases, Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 38:3, 413–435.
“Korean cooks invite you to sample their cuisine.” The Gazette (1867–2019), April 4, 1979.
“Korean Catholics revive homeland ceremony.” Calgary Herald (1939–2010), June 3, 1978.
“Korean Immigrants’ Dream Dies Hard.” The Gazette (1867–2010), Feb 14, 1987.
“Koreans thrive in B.C.’s small-business world.” The Vancouver Sun (1986–2016), February 14, 2003.
Library and Archives Canada. “Immigration Act, Immigration Regulations, Part I, Amended” RG2-A-1-a, volume 2269, PC 1962–86, 18 January 1962. “Immigration Act, Immigration Regulations, Part II, Amended” RG2-A-1-a, volume 2269, PC 1962–86, 1 February 1962
“Long Hours in a corner grocery store Koreans’ path to Canadian Life.” The Vancouver Sun (1973–1983), July 24, 1979.
Noh, Samuel, Ann Kim, and Marianne Noh. Korean Immigrants in Canada: Perspectives on Migration, Integration, and the Family. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2018. https://doi.org/10.3138/9781442690387.
